In a first-of-its-kind offering, ComScore will provide a complete measure for desktop, mobile, connected TV, and game console.

Getting complete measurements for online video has been a challenge, thanks to the fragmented nature of online video distribution, but this week measurement specialist comScore announced a partnership with Crackle that will expand video measurement into new areas.

While industry measures are typically limited to one platform, comScore is making its first foray into cross-platform audience measurement, says comScore vice president Andrew Lipsman. This will include mobile devices, connected TVs, and game consoles. The first client for this measurement is Crackle, Sony’s free ad-supported movie and TV show streaming service. Starting in the second quarter of this year, Crackle will be able to show its advertisers thorough audience numbers for playback on all devices and over 20 apps.

The difficulty in creating cross-platform measurements is that there’s a lot of overlap to the audience. It’s simple to deduplicate the audience when measuring two platforms, Lipsman said, but not so simple with the fifth or sixth platform. comScore has created a method for doing so, but it requires big data, says Lipsman. Publishers send comScore direct information on video activity, which comScore combines with its own research. In order to work out the deduplicaton factor, it needs a sizable overlap for each platform, and that means enormous data sets.

“Right now we did this specifically with Crackle ,but certainly it’s something that could be used with other content providers,” Lipsman says.

Crackle also made news today when parent company Sony announced that the service’s movies and shows are now integrated into the PlayStation Store. That makes them more easily available to PlayStation’s network of over 110 million users. Compared to other free ad-supported movie sites, such as Popcornflix, Crackle looks to have more recognizable titles. Crackle also offers original titles, which should help it stand out.